The 5 Best Drones For GoPro

Drones are a fantastic piece of technology. They have made it possible for anyone to explore the world from above. But the popularity has also made it difficult to find a good product. Especially when you are looking to use an action camera, such as a GoPro. We have done the research for you and put together a list of the very best drones for GoPro! Some even call the combo the drone GoPro. But why have we chosen to go with a GoPro camera when there’s so many other products?

Well first because GoPro is the most known name in the action camera industry. It’s popularity is also the reason why there are so many accessories made for it. The most important accessory is a gimbal when recording off a drone. Most of them are built for the dimensions of a GoPro. Which doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t use other action cameras such as SJCAM and Xiaomi, just have to make sure the dimensions are similar.

But that’s enough about action cameras, we will soon put together a list of the best action cameras for drones as well. But for now we will stick with the GoPro drone combo!

Best Drones for GoPro

While GoPro’s are pretty light in terms of weight, they still require a more powerful drone than you might find at toy stores. The GoPro drones are also much bigger. You have probably heard of the DJI Phantom and perhaps even seen it. Most of them are the same size and some even bigger. Another thing that you have to consider is the price. The best drones for GoPro aren’t exactly cheap. They will cost from around $500 plus a gimbal so it will total at around $600-800.

I also don’t recommend going cheap as a GoPro is a pretty expensive camera. The problem with the cheaper end drones is that they can crash or just fly off at a random time. Another thing is the stability, which isn’t that good so you can end up with the propellers in your footage or just a bad video. The higher end drones have also got useful features for recording better videos. Such as a GPS flight mode, waypoints and much more.

While our list features only the best drones for GoPro, we have also added budget options that are still good. So we have the best drones for everyone. Quality comes first and best isn’t always the most expensive!

1. Yuneec Typhoon G

Yuneec is a pretty well known name in the action camera industry. They are known for making some fantastic ready to fly drones, especially ones with built-in cameras. The Yuneec Typhoon G however is a drone specially created for action cameras. It comes with a price of $499, which makes it much cheaper than it’s competitors. And I must say that surprisingly not worse at all. The drone comes with a bunch of accessories, including a gimbal! So the $499 is all you’ll end up spending, nothing else is required.

The Yuneec Typhoon G is really easy to fly with. Especially with the flight modes, which also include Follow Me and Watch Me. Those two only work when using camera with the drone. You also get a nice radio transmitter, which also includes a LCD touchscreen! It’s one of the nicest and most complete out of all RTF drones I have flown. Another plus is the drones design. While it is a little bit too big and heavy for my taste, it’s built in a way that the propellers don’t show in the video while recording. That’s a huge plus for the drone.

The negative parts for me, besides the weight and size, is the flight time. I have managed to get around 15 minutes of flight time while flying with my GoPro and also having the live feed turned on. I would like for a longer flight time but to be fair, that’s actually pretty good for a GoPro drone. If you are looking for something longer, then sadly the built-in camera drones are an only option. So based on all that, I consider the Yuneec Typhoon G to be the best drone for GoPro. Getting a fantastic drone, plus a gimbal for $499 is pretty rare. Especially a drone of this quality. You can also check out our more in depth review!

2. GoPro Karma

GoPro first released their first Karma drone in November 2016. It was soon recalled due to battery problems that caused the drones to fall from the sky. Now the GoPro Karma is back, better than ever and with all the problems fixed. If you are looking for the best drone for GoPro, what could be better than one made by the same company right?

The GoPro Karma has a unique design, different from all of it’s competitors. While it’s a pretty big drone in size, it’s actually really portable as it can be folded into a much smaller size. And that’s fantastic as in my opinion a GoPro drone has to be small enough to be taken anywhere you want. On a hike into the mountains for example. The drone fits perfectly into a backpack with all of it’s accessories and extras. The included backpack has room for the drone, controller, propellers, charger and even the Karma Grip. The inside is made out of foam to protect your drone from any damages.

Another thing that I like is the radio controllers design. It flips open like a laptop, so you have a nice big touchscreen already on the controller. It’s made from a matte black high quality plastic. I also like the size of it. It fits my hands perfectly and not once has it felt like slipping out of my hand. And the exact same thing applies to flying. The GoPro Karma is unbelievably stable in the sky. Even while flying with a bit of wind. Plus it’s still pretty responsive. For example when you switch on the sport mode, the drone can fly at up to 35mph / 56kmh. Even the slightest touch on the controller will be shown on the drone, really impressive. You can also see everything that the drone is recording from the screen on your controller. So flying it is lots of fun.

The GoPro Karma also comes with a gimbal. It works really well and keeps the camera stable without any issues. I have really got nothing bad to say about the gimbal, GoPro has made it work with the drone really well. It is only compatible with the GoPro Hero5 Black though. You can also use it with the GoPro Hero4 Black if you purchase a $40 harness for it. It is also the only drone that is currently compatible with the Hero5 action camera. While it is most expensive option, it is the best drone for the GoPro Hero5 Black at the moment. Also check out our GoPro Karma review.

3. 3DR Solo Quadcopter + Gimbal

3DR Solo is the flagship drone from a company called 3DRobotics. They used to be the main competitor of DJI and the brains behind the opensource development of drone software. Although they have now switched to commercial and professional clients, their original 3DR Solo is still one of the best GoPro drones available.

The 3DR Solo was built for the GoPro Hero4 Black action camera. The most fantastic part about it is the entire package. First we have design, which is super sleek and compact. It’s small and light enough to bring on a hike. So you can really use it anywhere you want. Next we have the flight modes. Those include Follow Me, Mission Planner, Orbit and even a Selfie mode. The mission planner is actually that first made 3DR known. It features a map where you can pinpoint the exact locations and destination you want the drone to visit. After that, the drone will fly by your selected route without you having to do anything. It’s a very good feature and mostly used in the commercial industry, such as analyzing the condition of crop fields. But you can also use Orbit to make the drone fly around a certain object. I recently saw a video of that mode being used on a lighthouse. It looked amazing.

Besides that, you can plug connect the drone to a GoPro via a cable. This way you can use your phone to watch the live feed from the action camera while flying. The drones radio controller comes with a mount for your phone. It’s compact and works really well. I also recommend getting the 3DR Solo with the 3DR gimbal. It makes a massive difference and there’s really no reason not to do that. Without a gimbal, it’s still a great drone to fly with, but not for recording videos. You can get the combo for a pretty decent price now since 3DR has discontinued the sales to consumers. Our 3DR Solo review!

4. DJI Phantom 2 & H4-3D Gimbal

DJI is the legendary drone company that really revolutionized the industry. They were the very first to actually come out with a drone that was easy to fly right out of the box. Literally anyone could do it. The DJI Phantom 2 is their second version and their most popular drone ever. It has now been discontinued and DJI has moved onto building drones that come with their own cameras. But that doesn’t mean that the DJI Phantom 2 is bad. It’s still a very viable option for anyone looking for the best drone for GoPro. You can still find plenty of them on Amazon for example.

What makes the DJI Phantom 2 so good is that it flies wonderfully. It’s so easy to control and it’s balanced at all times. Literally anyone can fly it. Since DJI saw that more and more people wanted to record videos and not just fly the drone, they also paired the drone up with the Zenmuse H4-3D gimbal. It’s a high quality 3 axis gimbal specially designed for the GoPro Hero4 action camera. All you have to do is attach it to the Phantom 2, attach your GoPro and that’s it. The gimbal has a built in stabilization system so you don’t have to worry about configuring anything. The only downside is that you can’t see the footage your cameras recording from the ground. It is possible to enable FPV flying but that requires some DIY. It’s definitely not recommended for a beginner.

Like I said before, flying the DJI Phantom 2 is really simple. Part of that is because there aren’t any complex flight modes. There’s just return home, GPS mode for keeping the drone stable, Atti and manual. I definitely recommend keeping the GPS mode on when flying with a camera attached to it. It will make it less possible for you to accidentally crash the drone to the ground. Manual mode is definitely for a more experienced pilot. So if you are looking for a basic but really good drone for GoPro, then the DJI Phantom 2 & H4-3D combo is the obvious winner. You can search for videos taken with the combo on YouTube. There’s tons of good ones and really display the possibilities.

5. Walkera QR X350 Pro

The Walkera QR X350 Pro is yet another budget version of a drone GoPro. It’s basically an improved version of the previous Walkera X350. They have improved both the battery life, switched to a more durable plastic and even increased the length of the landing legs. If you are not familiar with the Walkera drone, then it basically resembles a DJI Phantom. It uses a very similar design.

Walkera has also upgraded the drones features. You can now also use waypoint navigation. You basically draw a route on Google Maps and the drone will follow it! It’s a really useful feature that can be used to record fantastic and interesting videos. There are also other modes such as auto takeoff, landing and return home. It’s also really easy to fly the drone. The flight controller basically does everything for you and keeps the drone hovering without any issues. I would still recommend practicing on a smaller drone before flying it. While it’s easy to use, the drone still requires some practicing before you can fly it well enough to record videos.

I recommend going with the Walkera QR X350 Pro version that comes with the FPV support. You will get a G-2D gimbal, a better radio controller and a iLook action camera. You can always switch out the action camera for a GoPro. But most importantly you will get a FPV transmitter and a radio controller that has a screen for video from the camera. This will let you see everything the camera can see from above. If you get the plain version then you are stuck with just the drone and that’s not suitable for aerial videos. I’d say that for just starting out, the Walkera QR X350 Pro is a pretty good GoPro drone.

I will keep on updating the list of drones as new ones enter the market. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or contact us!